My name is Anne and this is my allotment in the north-east of England. I love to be there.
So that I can keep track of what I am growing and where I am growing it, I am keeping a diary. Feel free to add a comment, I might reply..or I might not.

Tuesday, 21 June 2016

Fine day again..well, mostly. But not cold which is a blessing.

Spent the morning in the front garden planting lots of small plants which have been suffering in trays waiting for the ground to soften so I can plant them out. Lots of Sweet William and a few wallflowers for next year.

Planted out two little rose bushes. Now that the daffs and tulips have died back there seems to be loads of room.

To the plot in the afternoon to water the seeds: beetroot, purple queen french beans, florence fennell, turnips, root parsley.

Summer pruned the currant bushes. Three reasons to do this:
a lot of the new growing tips on the blackcurrant were curled up and distorted with greenfly colonies and I want to stop the spread to the white and red currants next to it,
the bushes were outgrowing their netting,
to let light and air in to the developing fruit.
I couldn't find any info on how to do this, so I used my gut instinct and trimmed off the new wood back to about 3 or 4 leaves.

Saturday, 18 June 2016

The sun came out! It shone all afternoon, I could almost believe it was summer after all.

Bought a couple of packs of hay at Wilko's and strawed the strawberries..

They aren't looking that clever, very few new leaves, fruit a bit misshapen (could be faulty pollination due to the cold spring), but there were 5 big ripe berries that hadn't been damaged by slugs/snails.

The cucumbers aren't looking happy either, one has died of unknown cause (probably neck rot) and the rest are looking droopy and haven't grown since I planted them about three weeks ago.

The grass is waist high at the sides of the beds so I took the strimmer down this afternoon and gave it a going over.

For all the cold and damp of the last few days/weeks, the soil is still quite dry underneath.

Thursday, 16 June 2016

Still cold and grey, temperature max of 14C but with a wind straight off the north pole, which makes it feel like 8C.
None of the plants are growing because of the cold and lack of sunlight. I'm beginning to feel that this summer might be a write-off.
Oh, and the snails came back in the night for the last french marigold.
Gloom, gloom...

Saturday, 11 June 2016

Weather cold and grey again, the temperature hasn't got above 13C all day. There has been a bit of dampness, (you couldn't dignify it with the name of rain) but not enough to wet the ground.
I found other things to do instead...clearing out the loft progresses.

Friday, 10 June 2016

The weather has turned a bit nippy again. Still no rain, everywhere across the uk is getting it except the north-east coast.

The french beans look as if they might recover, the new leaves look quite green and healthy, it is just the old leaves which have gone yellow. Lets see if they can survive through this latest cold weather.

I was raking the big lumps of soil, well, attempting to as they are like rocks at the mo.. when a little head popped out of a crack...

So I went and did something else for a while.

The foxgloves have come into their own at last..

...It seems a shame to cut them now even though I did intend them as cut flowers.

They said the Early latah tomatoes were a bit straggly and they were dead right there, but not particularly early, the nimbus at home in the greenhouse has big fruits on already where this has only got flowers so far...

Saturday, 4 June 2016

(where the sun did shine a couple of times and here's the photo to prove it.)

...to find my french beans in a sorry state...

I have watered and fed them, but I think the continuing chill may have done for them. The sweet corn is showing similar distress, looking quite yellow...

Plus a major invasion of slugs on the runner beans which has eaten most of the growing tips. Hopefully they will recover by growing more side shoots but means the start of bean production will be delayed.

I'm so glad I didn't plant out the courgettes and cucumbers before I went away, they would definitely have died outside. As it is, two La Diva and one Zucchini plant succumbed to what ever mystery ailment affects squash-type plants.

On the bright side the winter onions seem to have doubled in size in a week and I will now start using them in the kitchen.

The broad beans have lots of flowers and are getting taller...

And a pea pod!

Since Suttons have failed to come up with my order of new connectors for the fruit cage, I have had to improvise...